Monday, April 25, 2011

First club race for Poissy Triathlon







My first French Grand Prix for Poissy Triathlon and it was a memorable one with a team win in the Nice. I felt a bit different at first wearing the blue and yellow, well I was racing with the opposition from last year. Even the spectators were a bit confused, thinking who is that for Poissy?? But it didn't take long for me to get used to. I enjoy training with Carole and Jess in Montpellier in the pool and now I get to work with them during the race. It worked out well, we had 4 team members in the lead group, so we could keep the pace up. And the final standings were left for the 5km run. Barbara is in great form at the moment and she came through to take the lead in the final 500m in Nice.







I enjoyed seeing the beach in Nice, for the few hours that I was there. My flatmate came to watch, unfortunately I didn't win but we won the drive home in record time and a speeding ticket in his name!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Back to French Culture

I arrived in France a week ago via Dubai and 2 days with my sister. It's nice to travel to my other home in the south of France. I always look forward to seeing Laurent's family and I love seeing how happy they all are when we arrive.
Settling into the French lifestyle is always always a task. Starting the day later, therefore finishing training later and eating rarely before 8pm. As Laurent says an early dinnertime is AT 8pm. The climate is the first thing I notice, nice weather all day and the temperature is not much cooler at night. It doesn't take long for me to settle though. And then I always find a new wardrobe which I'd left behind and forgot about from the year before. We have a friend living with us who is a boulanger (baker), that equals fresh made croissants, sandwiches and baguettes everyday - bonus! It's nice to be back. Not many training hours so far, building into it slowly is so important with jet lag and a long season ahead.
First club race is early this year, in Nice this weekend.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Bronze in Sydney World Champs Series




The 2011 season is underway and in Sydney I put in a big effort the last time up the Macquarie Street hill to run my way to the bronze medal. A lot of things went right in the race, including a great start on the swim which put me in a perfect position out of trouble and I stayed in the front pack for the 40km bike. There was an unfortunate incident where a group of girls came crashing down just out the corner of my eye, the crashing of the bikes noise gave the worse feeling. Most of the girls got back up and luckily no one was injured badly. The run was really hard because it was very erratic at the front. I always stayed up the front where the pace was on then off then back on, all over the place really. And adding the downhill then uphill into the mix, it really took a toll on my legs. It's a nice start to the season to finish on the podium. Now it's a long flight to France and the European summer!